The following definitions apply in the interpretation of the provisions of this chapter, unless the context requires another meaning:

(1)  “ABET” means the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.

(2)  “Accredited program” means an approved program or course of study currently accredited and subject to review by the accepted national organization ABET (land surveying) and any other similar school or course of study that fulfills equivalent requirements that the board approves.

(3)  “Applicant” means an individual who has submitted an application for registration to practice land surveying as a surveyor-in-training, and/or a certification of authorization.

(4)  “Board of land surveyors,” “board of professional land surveyors,” or “board” means the board of registration for professional land surveyors, as subsequently provided by this chapter.

(5)  “Candidate” means a person who has the qualifications prerequisite by statute and board regulation for admission to examination and who has filed with the board an application for registration accompanied by the required examination fee.

(6)  “Certificate of registration” means a certificate issued by the board of professional land surveyors to a person to engage in the profession regulated by the board.

(7)  “Department” means the department of business regulation.

(8)  “Director” means the director of the department of business regulation or his or her designee.

(9)  “Experience” means combined office and field work in land surveying satisfactory to the board, including any work that is performed under the direct control and personal supervision of a professional land surveyor.

(10)  “Land surveyor-in-training” means a person who has qualified for, taken, and passed an examination in the fundamentals of land surveying.

(11)  “NCEES” means the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying.

(12)  “Part-time” means any type of employment or work engagement that requires less than twenty (20) hours of labor per week.

(13)  “Practice of land surveying” means any service or work, the adequate performance of which involves the application of special knowledge of the principles of mathematics, the related physical and applied sciences, and the relevant requirements of law for adequate evidence to perform the act of measuring and locating lines, angles, elevations, natural and manmade features in the air, on the surface of the earth, within underground workings, and on the beds of bodies of water for the purpose of determining areas and volumes, for the monumenting of property boundaries and for the platting and layout of lands and their subdivisions, including the topography, alignment, and grades of streets and for the preparation of maps, record plats, field-note records, and property descriptions that represent these surveys.

(14)  “Practice” or “offer to practice” means a person who engages in land surveying, or who by verbal claim, sign, letterhead, card, or in any other way represents himself or herself to be a professional land surveyor.

(15)  “Principal” means an individual who is a registered professional land surveyor and who is an officer, shareholder, director, partner, member, manager, or owner of that organization and who is in responsible charge of an organization’s professional practice for which he or she is registered.

(16)  “Professional land surveyor” means a person who has been duly registered as a professional land surveyor by the board established under this chapter, and who is a professional specialist in the technique of measuring land, educated in the basic principles of mathematics, the related physical and applied sciences, and the relevant requirements of law for adequate evidence and all to surveying of real property and engaged in the practice of land surveying as defined in this section.

(17)  “Registrant” means an individual who has been issued a certificate of registration by the board of professional land surveyors.

(18)  “Registrant’s seal” means an emblem of a type, shape, and size and as specified by the board of registration for professional land surveyors for use by an individual registrant to stamp legal descriptions, final drawings, specifications, and reports.

(19)  “Related curriculum” means an educational program of sufficient length and academic quality and content to satisfy the board.

(20)  “Responsible charge” means direct control and personal supervision of the work performed. No person may serve in responsible charge of land surveying work done in Rhode Island unless that person is registered as a professional land surveyor by the board.

(21)  “Rules and regulations” means that document of the same title, as amended from time to time, subject to the director’s approval, that has been duly adopted by the board of professional land surveyors and that prescribes the manner in which that board administers its affairs and establishes rules of conduct, procedures, and standards for adherence by all persons registered by the board, filed with the secretary of state in accordance with the provisions of §§ 42-35-3(a) and 42-35-4(b), and this chapter.